It Started With a Thief
by Luna Lunatic
Summary: In the kingdom of Konoha everyone lives happy peaceful lives, or so they think. Underneath it all there are secrets and lies that not many know about, which are, unintentionally, brought up by one thief. Full summary inside. Story is better than summary
1. Chapter 1

**Luna: Well this should be fun. Sorry I haven't updated any of my stories. I have major writers block. ****I have grown very unhappy with them**** and they are going to go through some major editing and revising. Now please enjoy my new story It Started With a Thief. Also, I don't own Naruto.**

**Summary: In the kingdom of Konoha everyone lives happy peaceful lives, or so they think. Underneath it all there are secrets and lies that not many know about, which are, unintentionally, brought up by one thief. To find out the truth everyone has to dive strait into the thieving world and hopefully save the kingdom. (Story way better than summary!)  
**

The night was dark and cloudy and the streets were empty except for the occasional mouse sniffing for scraps of food. A black clad figure was slipping in and out of the shadows with ease, careful not to stay in the open to long so as not to be spotted. It may have been past mid-night and the streets were empty but if someone had been awake and saw someone dressed in black from head to foot they would go to the guard and cause an unwanted commotion for the figure. Within a matter of minutes the figure reached their destination, a large stone wall 20 feet high.

The figure scaled the wall quickly using the hand holds that had been made by the erosion of the wall. Once at the top the figure stopped as a guard passed by on the patrol walkway, as it was called, keeping out of sight until the guard reached one of the patrol towers. Then the figure hopped onto the walkway and scaled down the other side of the wall into a court yard. The clouds hadn't cleared from the sky which caused the court yard to be mostly in shadow. The court yard was fairly large and was probably very beautiful in the day but with no light to illuminate it everything just looked like giant shadows. On the other side of the court yard was the figure's next destination, a servant door that lead into the royal castle.

The figure swiftly moved across the court yard avoiding the main paths and the light patrol of guards in the court yard sticking to the darkest shadows leaving no foot prints and making no noise and slipped inside the door quietly. Once inside the figure moved quickly down the servant hallway already knowing where to go from previous events.

The hallways were made of stone just like the castle the resided in and very plain. There were no windows and the only light came from the torches than hung from the walls. Servants were never seen or heard unless called upon so the hallways were enclosed except for the occasional doors that lead to the main hall ways and a few rooms.

After walking down many of the hallways and up a few stairs the figure stopped and opened one of the doors. There was a tapestry on the other side, which wasn't surprising most of the servant doors were covered with tapestries so they wouldn't be seen. The figure moved the tapestry aside with a black gloved hand and scanned the main hallway it opened to with emerald eyes. No one was around so the figure moved out from behind the tapestry and let it fall back in place.

The main hallways were much larger than the servants and lavishly decorated with colored tapestries, torches, flowers in vases, and there were windows lining one side of the hallway while doors lined the other. The floor had a long carpet that followed down the hallway and stopped about a foot from either wall.

Moving down the hallway the figure stopped at a door and reached out to open it. The figure hesitated debating the pros and cons of what was about to be done. Most of the cons that came to mind would only happen if the figure was caught and all the pros would come when the figure left the castle after completing the task. Quickly shaking those thoughts the figure opened the door as quietly as possible and went inside shutting the door just a quietly as it was open.

The room the figure entered was the bed room of the King's advisor and tax collector, Orochimaru. He was a very pale man, about 6' 2', early 50's (though he didn't look it), with yellow eyes and long black hair. Orochimaru was supposedly the leader of an elite group know as The Sound. No one knew what The Sound was up too only that it wasn't good, but no one could prove Orochimaru was connected. That's what the figure was there for, poof of his connection with The Sound. Not for personal use but for a big pay off of 100 gold coins, a pretty high price for information.

The figure scanned the room quickly. It was a big room with a desk, book shelves, a fire place, a wardrobe, a large window, a large four poster bed with the curtains closed and multiple odds and ends. The figure listened and could here a light snore coming from the bed and began creeping around the room making no noise. The figure first checked the desk, nothing; then the book shelves, again nothing. Then the figure checked the wardrobe and found nothing but cloths. When the figure was just about to give up something caught the figure's green eyes. It was something shining under the bed. The figure went over to the bed and reached under it and tried to get the object but it was too far under to get. So the figure crawled under the bed and retrieved the object. When crawling back out from under the bed the figure whacked its head on the foot board.

The figure heard Orochimaru stir in the bed.

The figure got up quickly and ran to the door but wasn't fast enough. Orochimaru had drawn the curtains of his bed back and seen the figure. In a panic the figure flew open the door and ran out.

"Guards!" the figure heard Orochimaru yell while running down the hall.

The figure was almost to the door that lead to the servant hallways when a group of guards appeared. The figure quickly turned and started running in the other direction only to be met with the same result with Orochimaru in tow. There was no way past them so the figure did the only thing left and jumped out the window.

It was a 30 foot drop most would have been seriously hurt jumping from that high but the figure had been training hard and took the drop as gracefully as a cat and ran towards the wall. The figure heard the guards shouting from behind but didn't can. The figure knew that by the time they caught up the figure would be at the top of the wall. One thing the figure didn't account for was one of the King's Shinobi Four to be waiting.

"All you thieves are so predictable," the pail onyx hair man said to the figure, "Though I was impressed you made it that far inside the castle with out being detected and you survived a 30 foot drop with out a scratch."

The figure gave a short chuckle, "Never thought I'd hear the Great Sasuke Uchiha of the Shinobi Four compliment a thief," the figure said disguising its voice so it was undistinguishable between male or female

Sasuke shrugged, "You may have made it this far made it this far but you're not making it out thief," he drew a kunai from his leg pouch.

"We'll see about that," the figure, now deemed thief, pulled out a kunai from a pouch similar to Sasuke's.

Sasuke and the thief stood for a moment and analyzed each other. The thief was about 5'6' and thin. Sasuke couldn't tell if the thief was male or female from the black baggy attire and the only thing visible was a pair piercing green eyes. Sasuke decided on the former considering the thief's skill and most female thieves were gypsies and none of them would ever sneak into places let alone castles. Sasuke new nothing about his opponent but that didn't bother him, it was just a thief an easy capture.

The thief didn't need to analyze Sasuke long he all ready knew about him, Uchiha Sasuke high 6 feet tall, age 18, slim muscular build, one of the last two members of the Uchiha clan and second in command of the Shinobi Four. The thief knew he couldn't last a fight with the Uchiha and would surely be caught but that didn't mean the Uchiha couldn't be out run.

The two charged at the same time. Just as the two were about the clash the thief threw the kunai causing Sasuke to deflect the attack allowing the thief to slide in between his legs and scale the wall. Sasuke was in pursuit right behind him. He never had any one get away and he wasn't about to let this thief do what others hadn't.

The thief reached the top of the wall and jumped down to the ground and began running into a near by ally but Sasuke was right behind and gaining. He followed the thief down multiple streets and allies. The only sound was from their feet hitting the ground as they ran.

"Give up Uchiha," the thief called back, "You won't catch me."

'We'll see about that,' Sasuke though and started running faster. He was right behind the thief and they were heading to a dead end. 'I've got him now,' Sasuke thought as they neared the dead end but instead of slowing down the thief jumped high in the air going well above the buildings, higher than Sasuke had ever seen anyone jump.

"Sayonara Uchiha," the thief called and gave him a two finger salute before disappearing behind the building.

Sasuke stopped and processed what had happened. He was shocked to say the least he had never seen any one do that nor could he believe someone could do that. Jumping over buildings was unreal and unheard of except in the legends of ancient shinobi.

Sasuke ran back the way he came and went to the other side of the building the thief had jumped over. He didn't see the thief any where nor could he find any trace of where he had gone.

"Damn it," Sasuke said slamming his fist into a near by wall. In all his years he had never let anyone get away and now a lowly thief had escaped him easily.

"The dope's going to have a field day when he hears this," Sasuke muttered under his breath and began walking back to the castle.

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Hinata Hyuga awoke to the sounds of a commotion out side her door. She quickly got up out of her large four poster bed and slipped on her white robe before opening the door. To her surprise she saw multiple guards running by.

"Um e-excuse me," Hinata said quietly trying to get someone's attention but the guard didn't notice her. "Excuse me," she said again but the guards kept running past. Suddenly she was pushed back into her room and the door was shut.

"Princess you have to stay in here," Hinata new exactly who it was, Naruto a member of her father's elite Shinobi Four and her crush. He was about 6 feet tall, muscular but not too muscular with blonde hair, blue eyes, and three whisker marks on each cheek.

"W-what's h-happening?" Hinata asked blushing a little at the fact Naruto was alone with her in her room.

"A thief got in to the castle and is in Orochimaru's room. The guards are after him now," Naruto said, "I'm her to make sure you're safe I'll be guarding your door until the thief is taken care of."

"T-thank y-you N-naruto," Hinata said twiddling her fingers and looking down.

"It's no problem Princess, it's my job," Naruto said and walked toward the door, "Come get me if you need anything, I'll be right out side." Hinata nodded and Naruto left.

Hinata sighed and went over to her mirror and looked at her self. 'Why doesn't Naruto notice me the way I notice him?' Hinata thought, 'Is it because I'm not pretty enough?' Witch wasn't true. She was 5' 5', slim, and had beautiful pale skin. She had long black hair with a tint of purple. Hinata had the most unusual eyes, the eyes of her family the Hyuga's, they were a pale lavender color with no pupil. In old Shinobi legend the Hyuga eyes were to posses a special sight so they could see all around them and at great distances. That wasn't true though no one could do that in the Hyuga family to day.

Hinata sighed again and decided to go back to bed. 'The thief will probably be caught before he has the chance to take anything,' Hinata thought and immediately fell asleep.

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The thief ended up in the forest that was near by the town, the client had wanted to meet there but never said when only where. The instructions where simple, follow the animal path leading toward the north until it opened up into a clearing and wait until they arrived.

The path wasn't hard to follow and the thief made it to the clearing easily but the client wasn't there yet so the thief waited. It wasn't until it was almost sunrise when the client came.

The client was 6' 2", male, and wore a long black cloak with red clouds on it and a pointed bamboo hat that hid his face. "Do you have information?" he asked.

"Yes," the thief said using the disguised voice again, pulling out the object from a pouch handing it to the client.

The client examined the object carefully from what the thief could tell it as some sort of head band with an insignia on it but wasn't sure because the thief hadn't examined it up close. The thief didn't want to; it was a policy never to really look at something that was stolen for something else.

The client slipped the object into his cloak and pull out a money pouch, "You precede your reputation, most thieves don't even make it past the wall."

"I'm not like most thieves."

"I may call on you again," he tossed the pouch toward the thief, who caught it easily, and disappeared with the blowing of the wind.

'How did he?' the Thief though but decided to look into later and inspected the contents of the bag. Sure enough there were 100 gold coins, telling just by the weight of the bag. The thief had stolen enough to know how heavy a bag should be with any amount of coins, even if there was an assortment of coins in the bag. 'At least this guy lives up to what he says unlike the rest who get mad at some of the stuff I get.' The Thief then left the clearing hopping from tree to tree.

**Luna: Please Read and Review. No flames please.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Luna: So sorry this has taken me so long. I couldn't upload anything for a while and I've had a lot of work to do so on with the chapter. I do not own Naruto.**

Chapter 2

"Whoa, Tenten are you serious?" a girl of about 18 with blue eyes and blond hair in a high pony tail and bangs over her right eye asked a girl of about 19 with brown eyes and hair which was in two buns with bangs who went by the name of Tenten.

"Yeah Ino," Tenten said, "Apparently Sasuke couldn't even catch him." They were both currently lifting supplies into a cart for the castle stable.

"Wow that's something I'd never though I'd here a thief getting all the way into the castle and then escaping," Ino said in amazement throwing a barrel of hay in the cart, "and with one of the Shinobi Four chasing him no less. What did he take?"

"I don't know," Tenten said lifting a bag of oats on to the cart, "But it seems like nothing. Orochimaru didn't act like anything was stolen, but they beefed up the guard patrols and everything."

"Maybe it was an assassination attempt," Ino said placing another bag of oats in the cart.

"Maybe but who knows they won't tell anyone anything," Tenten said lifting the last bag of oats in the cart. She dusted off her white sleeveless peasant shirt and reddish brown pants, "Thanks for the help Ino how much do I owe you?"

"Um let me see," she reached into her dirtied apron, which covered the front of her grayish purple dress, and pulled out a small receipt book and flipped thought it. "Looks like you owe 10 silver coins and 15 bronze coins."

"Whoa, what that's way more that last time!"

"Yeah I know but the harvest hasn't been very good lately and the delivery carts keep getting attacked on the way here. We have to make up the lost income some how."

"Yeah I get it," Tenten reached into her money pouch and handed Ino the coins.

"Pleasure doing business with you!" Ino said with smile in the chipper tone she used for all her customers.

"You're lucky you're my friend Ino," Tenten said getting on the horse, "Or I would wipe that smile clean off your face."

Ino just laughed and rolled her eyes, "Okay Tenten. Hey you free tonight we could go to the town bar and catch up on the latest news."

"Isn't that what the paper is for?"

"No the paper only tells the news around town and major news in other places. The bar tells you all the nitty-gritty details the paper leaves out and then some."

"I don't know Ino it just sounds like a lot of gossip to me."

"Come on Tenten. We might be able to find more information on that thief." Ino tried to entice Tenten.

"I think I've found all the real information on that. Everyone else will just tell rumors that they heard that are untrue or that they made up themselves to make them look better. Anyway I'm not into going to bars much anymore." Tenten grabbed the reins of the horse and made it start moving, "Well I'll see you later."

Ino pouted at Tenten as she drove the cart away. She had to get Tenten out on the town she hadn't been out in along time. Ino thought maybe if she could get Tenten out she could meet a guy and be able to get over her previous fiancé, who had died.

Then a thought struck her. There had only been one guy the Tenten had been even mildly interested after her fiancé's death.

Neji.

Ino ran after Tenten, "Hey Tenten," Tenten stopped the cart and allowed Ino to catch up, "You know Neji sometimes likes to go to the bar I want us to go to. You might be able to talk to him."

"But I do talk to him."

"Yeah but that's only when he's a Shinobi and you're the stable girl. At the bar you could talk to him person to person."

"Well I don't know…"

"Come on Tenten please!" Ino begged.

"Okay, fine."

"Yes! I'll see you later," Ino said running back to her shop, "And don't wear your stable stuff!"

Tenten sighed and continued on her way to the castle. Ino had been trying to get her to go out for a long time but after her fiancé died she hadn't felt like doing anything like that. She thought she would never get over him. Tenten truly thought she had found her soul mate and that hole in her heart would never be filled again. Then she met Neji.

He seemed cold and distant at first met him but after sometime she began to see the kinder side to him. She never went out with him but she slowly started to have feelings for him. Although she never thought that she would go out with him, just having feelings for another person made her realize maybe she could get over what happened. She could find someone else and if that someone else was Neji then that made it all the better.

Tenten began to feel better about going out that night and kept a positive attitude all the way to the castle.

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Hinata stood before her father in the throne room of the castle. Her father had summoned her to talk about something but she didn't know what. Hinata assumed that it was about all the commotion the night before. She never did here what happened to the thief, whether they were caught or had escaped. Though, she thought the thief had to have been captured. Multiple thieves had tried to get into the castle but none of them succeeded. They all had been captured by the Shinobi Four.

"Hinata I have called you here about the break-in last night," Haishi said sitting on his throne.

"Y-yes father I figured t-that would be the case."

Haishi nodded and continued, "The thief had gotten all the way into the castle without detection and reach Orochimaru's room."

"Y-yes Naruto Uzumaki told me what was h-happening when he was guarding my door. What I don't know is if the thief was caught or not."

"He was not," Hashi paused, "It has been decided that security will be increased in the castle and around the city. There have been far too many robberies and break-ins recently and I'm afraid that it's a sign of something worse to come."

"W-what do you mean f-father?"

"I think The Sound might be preparing to attack."

Hinata gasped, "F-father a-are you s-sure?"

"I'm sure and so does Orochimaru."

"B-but w-we don't have t-that many t-troops to d-defend against the S-sound. H-how w-will we p-protect the kingdom?" Hinata asked worriedly.

"That has already been taken care of. I have discussed this with my advisor Orochimaru and he suggested we send a message to the west to the kingdom of Sunagakure asking to send troops and help. We should here from them by tomorrow morning." "That's g-great father. Is there anything you w-wish for m-me to do?" "No nothing yet but if things start getting out of hand I want you to leave the kingdom with theShinobi Four, the Hyuga line must be preserved." "Yes f-father I understand," Hinata was about to leave when Hashi stopped her. "Hinata one more thing from now on you will be escorted by one of the Shinobi Four where ever you go." With that Naruto entered the throne room. "Hey Princess I guess I'll be your escort for today." Hinata blushed making her face resemble a tomato, "Are you alright Princess your face is really read." Naruto was about to reach out and feel her forehead to see if she had a fever when Hashi cleared his throat. Both Naruto and Hinata turned toward him. "If you will excuse me I'm needed for a meeting with the other guards to explain what is going on." Hinata bowed in apology, "Sorry father we will leave you to your important business," and she ran from the throne room leaving a trail of dust behind her. "Princess wait up!" Naruto yelled then bowed to the king and ran after her.

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Orochimaru sat in his room working at his desk when there was a knock on his door.

"Enter," he said and continued working.

"Orochimaru," Orochimaru turned to face Kabuto Yakushi, the castle doctor, kneeling before him.

"Kabuto have you do what I asked?"

"Yes Lord Orochimaru the troops will be here in two days."

"Very good Kabuto. Do you have the letter?"

Kabuto got up from his kneeling position and handed him a letter that was tucked away in his pocket.

Orochimaru read over the letter quickly then tucked it away in his desk. He then handed Kabuto another letter that he had been working on before Kabuto entered. "Give this letter to one of the messengers to deliver to the King and be discreet about it."

"Yes my lord," Kabuto bowed and left the room.

Orochimaru turned back to his desk and smiled. Everything was going according to plan and it would all start in two days.

Luna: Sorry this was short R&R. No flames please!


End file.
